


the little things in life

by windfalling



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 17:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15611772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windfalling/pseuds/windfalling
Summary: Jiya likes taking souvenirs from her trips to the past.





	the little things in life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [barefootwithneonhands](https://archiveofourown.org/users/barefootwithneonhands/gifts).



> fluff/humour is so very much not my wheelhouse, but i had a lot of fun writing this, so i hope you have fun reading it! this takes place in some nebulous s3/movie-era where rufus is back but they're still going on the same sleeper agent missions and staying in the bunker, with a tiny mention of background established flynn/lucy.

 

Rufus finds Jiya in their room, fiddling with a cape draped around her shoulders. (It’s _their_ room now, after they all realised that they’d all essentially paired off, and after Lucy and Flynn had stopped pretending they weren’t jumping each other’s bones when no one was looking.) He leans against the doorframe, an amused smile on his face as she twirls around, inspecting it.

“Are you moonlighting as a vigilante, now?” he says, and she jumps and whirls around, cheeks darkening.

“I was thinking Batwoman,” Jiya says, eyes bright with excitement. “I know I was thinking of doing Cassandra Cain, but this one has the red underside to it, see? I just need to take some scissors to the bottom and it’ll be _perfect_.”

She’d been working on one of her cosplay costumes for Comic Con, but had to abandon it because, well, Rittenhouse. (A lot of things could be explained with that single word, Rufus thinks.)

“So?” Jiya says. “What do you think?”

“Very badass,” he says seriously, and she beams at him.

It’s so damn cheesy, but he could spend forever looking at that smile. It’s become so rare for her to look at him without those visions of his death looming in her eyes, for her to forget about the evil organisation that had once killed him and kidnapped her and trapped her in the past, for their lost three years to fade away. He’ll do anything to keep that joy on her face.

Rufus walks up to her and pulls her closer, his hands around her waist. Jiya grips the edges of the cape and wraps her arms around him, enveloping them both as she tips her head up to kiss him.

-

“Let me guess,” Rufus says, “you’re going steampunk.”

Jiya’s holding up a pair of opera glasses to her head, peering at him from across the room.

“Oh! That’s not a bad idea,” Jiya muses, bringing them away from her eyes so she can study them.

“Where’d you even get them, anyway?”

They haven’t been out of the bunker recently, except for their trips in the Lifeboat, and it doesn’t seem like something the bunker would normally have.

Then he remembers why they look so familiar. They’d tracked down their last sleeper agent to the opera, and he’d spotted them through a pair of opera glasses, and then he’d promptly bolted, likely dropping them along the way.

“Wait, is that from—”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not like he really needs them anymore,” she says defensively at the look on his face. “What, like you guys don’t take souvenirs from your trips?”

All Rufus can think of are the agents that had come after them with guns. The only thing he’d brought back with him was mud and dirt and decades-old bacteria, probably.

“Uh, not really.”

She twirls it in her fingers, a small frown on her face. Hastily, he says, “I mean, it’s fine, and you’re totally right, he’s super dead and definitely doesn’t need them.”

Jiya peers at him again through the glasses. “I can’t believe you guys never took anything back.”

“I never thought about it. But if you want, I’ll bring you something next time,” Rufus promises.

She smiles, and it’s a little faded from the reminder that they’re always on edge, always waiting for the alarms to blare and for the countdown to reset. Jiya doesn’t go with them all the time, but she’s always _there_ in a sense, watching from a different time.

“I’ll hold you to that,” she says.

-

After they all stumble out of the Lifeboat, Rufus turns to help Jiya down the steps, only to pull up short when he sees what she’s holding.

“You did _not_ take the box of chocolates,” Rufus says in disbelief, staring at the very thing in her hands.

Jiya bites down on her lip guiltily. “It was _right there_ ,” she says, and it’s all the defense she has.

Wyatt glances over at them and eyes it warily. “Are you sure that’s still good to eat?”

It’s a good question. Jiya makes her way down the steps and goes to set it down on the kitchen table.

“What if it’s totally rotten because of the jump, like decades-old chocolate?” Wyatt asks.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Lucy says, eyeing it curiously as well. “ _We_ don’t age the number of years we time travel.”

Flynn, the giant that he is, peers over them all to have a look at the box they’re all crowded around. “I volunteer Wyatt to have the first try,” he says, and Wyatt gives him a decidedly unimpressed look.

“Guys, come on,” Jiya says, and before anyone can stop her, she flips the box open in one smooth motion and pops one of the chocolates in her mouth.

They all watch in a riveted mixture of horror and intrigue.

Jiya chews with a neutral expression before swallowing. For a few seconds, she says nothing, and Rufus has the feeling that she’s reveling in the suspense.

“Well?” Rufus asks, wide-eyed.

“Yeah, that was disgusting,” Jiya declares, and promptly tosses the box in the trash.

-

Jiya takes one look at him and bursts out laughing.

“What is _that_?”

Rufus, posing with one hand stretched out to lean against the doorframe and the other at his hip, has a ghastly bright magenta feather boa wrapped around his neck.

“This, my darling kleptomaniac, is your souvenir.”

She’s still giggling when he walks up to her and wraps it around her, using it to tug her toward him. “God, the feathers. I feel like you can suffocate someone to death with that thing.”

Rufus, who is definitely has at least one feather in his mouth from making the mistake of speaking and wearing it at the same time, nods gravely. “It’s a death trap,” he agrees. “Very versatile, as you see. Murder weapon and fashion statement, all in one.”

Jiya considers it for a moment. “I think we can think of some other uses for it,” she says, and when she waggles her eyebrows at him, he breaks into a laugh.

Rufus looks over at the opera glasses sitting on the side table and his smile fades. “Seriously, though, I _am_ sorry I didn’t get you something better than this.”

“Don’t be,” Jiya says, cupping his face in her hands. “It’s not like you were out on a joyride. All I want is for you to come home safe. Everything else is a bonus.”

Rufus presses his mouth to hers, and kisses her slow and easy and warm, like they have all the time in the world.

“I _do_ like it, though,” Jiya whispers against his mouth, and he laughs as she begins detailing all the creative ways they could use the boa.

He strokes his hands over her back. “I love you,” he says. She smiles up at him, warm and content, and he knows that everything will be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: a happy ending with a bit of humour & to include certain items (i ended up with four instead of the three): a cape, a really bad box of chocolates, a feather boa (feather or snake), opera glasses.
> 
> thanks for reading!


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